Keeping on top of deep cleaning the house

[NewShoesForSpring]

I'd say we're generally pretty clean & tidy

Our house is always (just about) visitor ready. We never let dirty dishes accumulate. We wipe the counters before & after every food prep.

We have a cat so we keep on top of hoovering due to her hairs.

It seems orderly. However i had yesterdsy off work & decided to deep clean our bedroom. Omg! Once i started looking at the skirting boards & the edges where the wall meets the ceiling, in the corners, behind stuff erc - seriously, the dust & cobweb levels were shocking

Today I'm tackled the bathroom. Again sink, toilet & bath cleaned v regularly but when I pulled out the storage unit for products! Again dusty, hairy, just generally filthy

I work full time, so does dh. We both do equal amounts of cleaning but somehow we're obviously not keeping on top of it all.

I don't want to spend all weekend every weekend deep cleaning! I need down time too

how do you all manage it?

Ultimately I want to enjoy my home tje way i love being in a hotel. I want to get it to that level & then keep it like that. I feel I'm missing some vital method or system..

We don't have a cleaner.

I know it isn’t always do able but we pay a deep clean every 6 months. We both work full time and have 3 children so finding the time to do more than ‘basic’ cleaning is difficult.

they come in and clean under and beck d everything, clean all the furniture and car keys etc and it does really help.

we do have a skip once a year as well to declutter as I find that to be a big issue with us!

She deep cleans our kitchen & lounge (open plan) so hoovers and mops floor, all surfaces, cupboard doors, dusts and wipes all surfaces, cleans our French doors and windows.

Also does the hallway, downstairs loo, bathroom (mops, wipes it all down, removes limescale etc)

Its so good because it makes it easier to keep on top of the rest of the time to be honest.

I usually get sofas and oven deep cleaned once per year professionally too. X

My house only gets deep cleaned when we are expecting special visitors. Eg we are expecting people from abroad this month who I've not seen for several years. I've been painting and cleaning no end. My mate that lives down the road and visits every week sees it as it usually is. Mostly tidy, not do dirty as to endanger health and thoroughly lived in by a busy family of five.

Exactly what I-was going to say. I had never heard of deep cleaning until I joined Mumsnet! If I cannot see the mess it really doesn’t bother me .House generally clean and tidy . That’s my limit.

YABU. Superficially clean is enough. Occasional deep cleaning is fine. It's less rewarding if it isn't really grim to start with.

You’re already doing far more than most people. Don’t waste your life on this.

Robot vacuum - I have one upstairs and one downstairs. They get on with it and I don’t have to do much except make sure there’s nothing on the floor they can tangle in. That leaves me the stairs to do. Fluffy duster for surfaces. Mixture of vinegar and cleaner in a spray bottle for bathrooms and kitchen sink. Smart use of storage to keep things tidy.
I do clean in more detail (proper vacuum, polish furniture), here and there as well, alongside making sure kitchen surfaces and loos are always clean.
(I have fibromyalgia so have learnt to spend my energy wisely!)

I feel exactly the same OP, this house is like the forth bridge, but dust. We're all tidy and clean as we go but it's not as clean I'd prefer- I'm not some mad obsessive, I just don't want to notice fingerprints on the kitchen doors when I'm sat at the table eating, or the shower door trim looking manky when washing my hair.

I use the app Tody to log jobs like this and then it reminds you when they are due again.

I use it for the more frequent ones too because my time blindness is shocking. In general I like it. If you prefer something less cartoony I think you can turn off the interface or there was another app I used to use earlier on called Regularly, that just displayed the tasks in text form instead.

I also like those dusters with the disposable heads that you throw away, the ones which are like a magnet for dust. I can't remember what their brand name is in UK now, Swiffer? It is probably horrendous for the environment but I use them all the time to get rid of dust on the lighter surfaces and then once they get too dirty I start using them to clear cobwebs or on dusty surfaces in dirty areas like bathrooms and only when they start leaving more cobwebs than they remove do I throw them away. I find this much better though than dusters which seem to just move the dust around.

And if everything looks scruffy all the time you probably have too much stuff. You need a system to regularly get things out of the house. I'm struggling at this at the moment because I don't have a good route to do it by.

It's really interesting to read all the perspectives on this!

Where do you all stand on maintaining the paint work/ decor etc?

Dh is painting the hall, stairs & landing this weekend. Its been YEARS since it was last painted. It feels lovely & fresh now. He's done all the woodwork. Walls to be done tomorrow.

I dont think we're wasting our lives doing this sort of stuff. Quite the opposite.i feel we're getting to a place where we can sit back & enjoy our free time here. But I think it will take a bit of a push to get to that point....

Meant to say we're living here 20 years so first (& in some rooms second) round of decorating is looking tired now & could use a freshen up

This is exactly it!!

I've never done deep cleaning. I can't be bothered.

about twice a year and it takes me 2/3 days

sucks tbh! But I’m always glad I did it

OP I clean my house every Saturday, depending on how motivated/distracted by SM I am it can take 3-4 hours. This is tidying, dusting,vacuuming, washing etc. We have three bathrooms. This is my usual routine, after I have cleaned the bathrooms I'll use those handtowels to run around the tops of skirting as they are going in the wash. I have 3 children and work FT. The kids do their own bedrooms. My DH does that weeks DIY ( we are renovating) , and the gardening.
I deep clean a room at a time ad hoc and usually regret it as soon as I start! My daughters bedroom was the last one I did and all the bits that don't usually get moved had so much dust behind them! Do what works for you, if your home is visitor ready you are doing well already 😊

@BertieBotts that's a good tip about tje duster. I'll look out for one of those. Especially useful for the wall of bookshelves we have etc thanks

I clean every day and deep clean one room every month that's how I manage.

Thanks. Sounds brilliant. I will be searching for my new “ deep clean cleaner” asap!

I need to clarify that by visitor ready I mean someone could come into the kitchen without fainting!

We've gotten really good at not allowing crap to build up on the kitchen table. I had a habit of folding clothes at the table & leaving the piles there but I've cracked down on that now. And i now keep a vase of fresh flowers on it to deter me from slipping into old habits again

We've always been v good about washing up & clearing the counters. Ive had to work on dh not to half do stuff like wash up & leave it all on the draining board to drip dry. But instead dry them & put them away in one go.

Our front door opens into our kitchen (old house) so its vital that room is kept tidy.

We absolutely DO have too much stuff & as I said earlier I'm on a total decluttering buzz & have gotten rid of so much stuff already but there's definitely more to do.

Decorating is another thing we outsource! Every time we go on holiday we get the decorators in to do either a floor or a couple of rooms or hall stairs and landings, means everywhere is done every 2 years at some stage.
Mostly it’s just being redone the same colour so it’s all just getting a freshen up.
We have a busy house, 5 of us here, we host a lot of parties and always hold Christmas here as we have the most space. Just like everything to be kept on top of really.
While we are house proud you wouldn’t walk in and think we live in a show home, it’s just kept clean and tidy and well maintained. And I love spending time in it!

I think this is normal. To be honest whenever I've tried to implement a 'system' or routine, life gets in the way of it. The house is fairly presentable but with two working adults, a young child, regular visitors and a cat, it just doesn't get deep cleaned very often, maybe twice a year. I don't want to spend my time cleaning, it's time-consuming enough keeping on top of the basics and the never ending washing.

I don't mine leaving washing in the machine once its finished but I never go out and leave the washing machine or dishwasher running. many years ago I used to do this, we had a small utility room in our first house and I came back to find the utility filling with smoke and the washing machine smouldering. Apparently it was a control box failure and the model was about to be recalled. More recently my less than a year old dryer blew out a plug in the garage and the plug showed signs of burning fortunately it tripped the box and I went out to see what was happening and found it. Nice under warranty repair man changed the dryer cable for me

Unless you are getting ill I don’t think all
of this deep cleaning is necessary. People never lived like this in the past. I think it’s all just a scam to make people buy more cleaning products. Who cares if areas you can’t actually see are gathering dust, unless you’re eating there or it’s directly in your line of sight it’s not doing any harm.

My house is tidy, dishes are washed after eating, we hoover at least once a week, clean bathrooms once a week, empty bins and wipe surfaces 2/3 times a day. I might hoover under the bed a couple of times a year. I can’t actually ever really remember cleaning skirting boards. We’re rarely ill, house smells fine and looks nice.

@NewShoesForSpring deep cleaning?? I am struggling to stay on top of the shallow cleaning!

The Organised Mum Method app sounds ideal for you.
I swear by it.